Wesnoth is also under continuous development, too. SMAX factions are highly unlikely to become obsolete unless a patch maker like Yitzi does something to fundamentally change the way the game reads factions, which is unlikely.

I am thinking more like a Lazy Newb Pack like dwarf fort has.... It installs everything for you!

It would have - somewhat tested factions. No text, no art, lame? Not included. Matters not age. Has to be at least BU-level art and fit the genre.- a graphical ALPHAX editor for the functions that really should be in an options menu!- the latest stable Yitzi patch that HAS INSTALLER AND INCLUDES EVERYTHING YOU NEED WITHOUT SEARCHING!!! (I am going to catch stuff for that, I know.) Basically... Yitzi? Patch? Better game? Click here.... Not, get version 2.y ... but oh, you need a file 0.y kind of stuff.- PRAX separate from Yitzi's, not included.- ability to enable or disable components if one breaks.

Could be a rational target. "One package" might work until the assets get large enough that the size of the download is at issue. Or the asynchronicity of updates is an issue, how to get the "latest greatest" of something. That's why people use packaging systems, to allow the asynchronicity. They may come at the cost of deployment complexity.

Well, I am thinking maybe 7 to 10 total factions to start. Maybe even that is too much.

Factions themselves don't take up too much as long as there are not DOZENS which is overkill and only the most no life (or enlightened hardcore) would play all of them

Fortunately, I do have recommendations.

- (FIXED) Antimind - but needs to be pumped up slightly!(Also needs a minor bug fix missing from conversion from SMAC to SMAX... ALIEN_FACTION_TREATY entries missing)- (FIXED) Ete's Anihilators (need to remove HQ from all bases.. I think it causes a bug when trying to rescue a faction leader probe mission and random, disappearing factions or at least used to--- replace with more +EFFICIENCY)- Jarlwolf's Crimson Comrades (okay as is for human faction)

Agreed about just the seven other factions slot available. it'd still be quite a goody set - you have a bias for monsters, though...

Well.. they are supposed to be...

What threat would Montezuma have if he was not coming to you early and messing your plans up in Civ 4? What would Ghandi had been but an also-ran AI in early Civ if he did not go ALL NUKES after being all peace-loving? These personalities must be backed by force..

Do you know of any games with mod packaging systems in wide use, other than Wesnoth? Whether open source or commercial. I'm wondering where one would go to school on best practices. Skyrim seems to have the biggest modding community, last I looked. However I didn't get deeply into it, because their modding looked like it was cookie cutter template driven, not programming driven.

I know that Civ IV was moddable with Python and that they had a SDK. They dropped the Python like a hot potato and went to Lua for Civ V. I'm not sure whether they had a SDK for that. I know in any event people howled and many stuck with Civ IV. Don't know what Civ VI has done. Yes I could research it myself but wouldn't mind a slight short brain dump from someone who already understands. Preferring to use spare brain cells for actual modding work at the moment, not logistical overheads.

Judging by http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/Modding_(Civ6) it looks like Civ VI is a Lua + XML + Steam + inherent game support modding ecology. That doesn't actually help much for best practices, other than considering Lua as a scripting language for the undertaking. Retrofitting a game that doesn't have mod support, to a website that isn't Steam, is its own beast.

The Nexus Mod Manager is free and open source under a GPL license. However I'm willing to guess its features would revolve around Nexus Mods, and that doesn't help drive traffic to AC2. Also they have no AC community there. They do have 60 mods for Civ VI.